Welcome Ramadan and Birthday Party!

Insha'Allah my daughter will be turning 7 this Ramadan, and I thought it would be nice to celebrate her birthday, along with a welcome Ramadan party for all her friends (25 girls screaming ages 4-8)!

Seven is a big, important number for Muslim children. It's when they start to get into the habit of performing their daily 5 prayers. Alhamdulillah, her excitement for this milestone has been building up for quite some time, and with summer vacation around the corner, she's also looking forward to waking up for suhoor and fajr. 

 

The girls made tasbeeh bracelets with pretty beads and fuzzy pompoms in place of traditional tassels.  Each girl would use 33 beads to make a bracelet. In my mind this idea seemed a lot simpler and fun, but the reality was somewhat chaotic, even with the help of all the other moms :D  Some of the little ones had a hard time putting the beads through, some of the older girls wanted a specific pattern, and some wanted necklaces lol.  By the end I was frazzled, but the girls seemed happy with their end products, and that's all that matters right?

I ordered organic lavendar scented mehndi from Healing Henna (she has an Etsy shop), and all the girls got some applied on their hands.  I think this was hands down their favorite part! Especially because one of their most favorite teachers was the one who was putting it on, and she is SO good at it!

I had a couple of other activites/games planned, but the mehndi took a while, and the girls just seemed to be enjoying playing with each other, so I didn't get a chance to do those.  One was pin the crescent moon on the masjid, and the other was a game of tug of war standing on chairs over a ball pit (I was actually looking forward to this one the most, maybe next time inshaAllah).

I gave my daughter the choice of whether to keep all her birthday gifts or donate them to kids who don't have as many as her, and she chose to donate :)  Mind you, I worded it in a way where she would feel guilty keeping all those toys to herself lol.  My husband and I plan on getting her something nice, and I also bought her a really pretty pink prayer rug, a pink tasbeeh, and cute hijabs.  I know there are some cute kids prayer rugs, but I wanted to get her something she can use even when she's older, and something she can cherish fondly inshaAllah.  I bought this one from Amazon.

I didn't concentrate on the salah part at the party, because I felt there would already be too much going on.  But privately, we've been having discussions about it, and I'm hoping those gifts I bought her will get her more excited about it. 

And of course, I used the adorable Minty Mubarak plates, cups, and napkins for the party, and everything went so well together!

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